Conventional clothes dryers include a rotatable drum in which wet clothes are placed. During operation, the drum receives heated air which circulates through the drum as the drum rotates. The drying and tumbling of the clothes frees a large quantity of lint which is carried in the exhaust air. The dryer is equipped with a filter in the form of a mesh screen that receives the exhaust air from the drum. The mesh screen entraps a significant amount of the lint, nevertheless, the exhaust air still contains a substantial amount of lint.
The lint carried by the exhaust air includes textile fibers and other materials used in the manufacture of clothing, including naturally occurring fibers, such as cotton, wool, and linen, other non-naturally occurring fibers from materials such as SPANDEX, LYCRA, and TYVEK which further accumulate with other fibers and particles such as human and animal hair, skin cells, plant fibers, pollen, dust, microorganisms, paper, tissue, or the like, which renders the exhaust air from the clothes dryer unsuitable for direct emission into an interior room of a commercial or residential building for a variety of reasons.
Inhalation of lint, as observed in early textile workers, may lead to diseases of the lungs, such as byssinosis or may exacerbate allergies and asthma, as well as irritate the eyes, nose or throat. Microorganisms in lint can also be transferred to open wounds causing infection. Lint is also known to damage mechanical devices.
Unfortunately, conventional venting of the exhaust air from commercial or residential buildings to the external atmosphere may not be possible for a variety of reasons, including internal or external space considerations, routing of conduit to the external vent may exceed manufacturer's recommendations, resultant longer drying times, or creation of potential fire hazards. Accordingly, there may be no choice but to remove the lint from the exhaust air from the clothes dryer and vent the filtered exhaust air from the clothes dryer to an interior room of the building. A number of solutions to remove lint from the exhaust air have been proposed; however, various disadvantages with the proposed solutions remain unresolved.
Certain proposed solutions provide a conduit which receives exhaust air from the clothes dryer which has been filtered through the mesh screen and extends from the clothes dryer to a conduit outlet disposed in a container above a volume of liquid. During operation of the clothes dryer, the exhaust air delivered from the conduit outlet is directed into the liquid where the lint is to be trapped. The twice-filtered air then exits the open end of the container into the interior room.
However, the exposure of the exhaust air to liquid increases the moisture level of the exhaust air, thereby increasing humidity in the interior room and correspondingly decreasing the efficiency of the drying cycle. Additionally, in cleaning the container, the lint laden liquid cannot be disposed down a sink without the risk of drain clogging. If the liquid is not removed and cleaned at frequent intervals, the standing liquid may become moldy, resulting in noxious odors and decreased sanitation levels in the interior room and in the air entering the drum. Additionally, if the liquid is allowed to evaporate, the filter will be rendered inoperable. Moreover, the surface area of the liquid that receives lint from the exhaust air is relatively small and, as a result, has a limited ability to entrain all lint that is directed towards the liquid.
Other proposed solutions provide a conduit which receives exhaust air from the clothes dryer which has been filtered through the mesh screen and extends from the clothes dryer to a conduit outlet coupled to a filter housing which supports a filtration material. The exhaust air travels through the filtration material. The twice-filtered air then exits the filtration material into the interior room. However, the efficiency of a filter material in removing lint carried in the exhaust air from the clothes dryer can be dependent upon particular exhaust air flow characteristics developed within the filter housing supporting the filter material. Certain proposed constructional forms of the filter housing define an enclosed chamber having a volume in which the velocity of the exhaust air velocity is sufficiently reduced to allow lint or certain components of the lint to fall out of the exhaust air due to gravity or electrostatic forces to collect on the internal surfaces of the filter housing. If the filter housing is not cleaned at frequent intervals, the aggregated lint can further reduce exhaust air velocity exacerbating aggregation of lint on the internal surface of the filter housing. The aggregated lint can become moldy, resulting in noxious odors and decreased sanitation levels in the interior room and in the air entering the drum of the clothes dryer. As to other proposed constructional forms of the filter housing, the exhaust air velocity in the enclosed chamber may be sufficient to maintain lint in the exhaust air to the filter material but the lint or components of the lint may not collect on the filter due to insufficient impact inertia. As to other proposed constructional forms of the filter housing, the exhaust air velocity at the filter material may so greatly reduce the diffusion time of the lint or the lint components in the filter material that the lint or lint components pass through the filter material uncollected. As other proposed constructional forms of the filter housing, the exhaust air in the enclosed chamber may develop turbulence which affects the exhaust air velocity, which is constant but varies over the surface or through the filter material, or which is variable in relation to any particular portion of the surface of the filter material. Accordingly, a filter material, even when accorded a particular minimum efficiency reporting value (“MERV”), may not collect lint or lint components in part or in whole, or perform worse than predicted based on the MERV because of various installation conditions related to the configuration of the filter housing and not the filter material itself.
There would be a substantial advantage in a lint catching system having a filter housing configured to address the disadvantages of the above proposed constructional forms of the filter housing in relation to the effect on the efficiency of the filter material.